Transcription
THE OCCULT ANATOMY OF MANMANLY P. HALL
THE OCCULT ANATOMY OF MANbyManly P. HallTHIS DIGITAL EDITION WAS TRANSCRIBED BY UNIVERSAL LIFE UNIVERSITY.PUBLIC DOMAIN STATUSThis work has been determined to be in the public domain. Therefore, this work is not subject to copyright and free to copy, use, andredistribute in part or in whole. This digital edition is intended to preserve this work for educational and scholarly purposes. It's possiblethat current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs,assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to beobtained independently. This work may not be in the public domain in other countries. Persons receiving copies should makeappropriate efforts to determine the copyright status of the work in their country and use the work accordingly.
THE OCCULT ANATOMY OF MANCONTENTSPART ITHE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISMPART IITHE THREE WORLDSPART IIITHE SPINAL COLUMNPART IVTHE INFERNAL WORLDSPART VOCCULT EMBRYOLOGYPART VIOCCULT MASONRY
THE OCCULT ANATOMY OF MANPART ITHE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISMIn Scripture we are told that God made man in his own image. It is so stated not only in the ChristianBible but also in the holy writings of nearly all enlightened people. The Jewish patriarchs taught thatthe human body was the microcosm, or little cosmos, made in the image of the macrocosm, or thegreat cosmos. This analogy between the finite and the infinite is said to be one of the keys by the aidof which the secrets of Holy Writ are unlocked. There is no doubt that the Old Testament is aphysiological and anatomical textbook to those capable of reading it from a scientific viewpoint. Thefunctions of the human body, the attributes of the human mind, and the qualities of the human soul,have been personified by the wise men of the ancient world, and a great drama has been built aroundtheir relationships to themselves and to each other. To the great Egyptian demigod, Hermes, thehuman race owes its concept of the law of analogy. The great Hermetic axiom was: That which isabove is like unto that which is below, and that which is below is like unto that which is above.The religions of the ancient world were all based upon nature-worship, which in a degenerated formhas survived to our own clay as phallicism. The worship of the parts and functions of the human bodybegan in the later Lemurian period. During the Atlantean epoch this religion gave place to sunworship, but the new faith incorporated into it: doctrines many of the rituals and symbols of theprevious belief. The building of temples in the form of the human body is a custom common to allpeoples. The Tabernacle of the Jews, the great Egyptian Temple of Karnak, the religious structures ofthe Hawaiian priests, and the Christian churches laid out in the form of the cross, are examples of thispractice. If the human body were laid out with the arms spread in the shape of any of these buildings,it would be found that the high altar would occupy the same relative position in the building that thebrain occupies in the human body.All the priests of the ancient world were anatomists. They recognized that all the functions of naturewere reproduced in miniature in the human body. They therefore used man as the textbook, teachingtheir disciples that to understand man was to understand the universe. These wise men believed thatevery star in the heavens, every element in the earth, and every function in nature, was representedby a corresponding center, pole, or activity within the human body.This correlation between nature without and the nature of man within, which was concealed from themultitudes, formed the secret teachings of the ancient priestcraft. Religion in Atlantis and Egypt wastaken much more seriously than it is today. It was the very life of these peoples. The priests hadcomplete control over the millions of ignorant men and women who had been taught since childhoodthat these robed and bearded patriarchs were direct messengers from God; and it was believed thatany disobedience to the commands of the priests would bring down upon the offenders head thewrath of the Almighty. The temple depended for its maintenance upon its secret wisdom, which gaveits priests control over certain powers of nature and made them vastly superior in wisdom andunderstanding to the laity whom they controlled.These wise ones realized that there was a great deal more involved in religion than the chanting ofmantras and the singing of hymns; they realized that the path of salvation could be walkedsuccessfully only by those who had practical, scientific knowledge of the occult function of their ownbodies. The anatomical symbolism which they evolved in order to perpetuate this understanding hascome down to modern Christianity, but the keys to it apparently have been lost. It is a tragic situationfor religionists that they are surrounded by hundreds of symbols which they cannot understand; but it
is still sadder that they have even forgotten that these symbols ever had any meaning other than thefoolish interpretations which they themselves have concocted.The idea prevalent in the minds of Christians that their faith is the one and only truly inspired doctrine,and that it came parentless into the world, is unreasonable in the extreme. A study of comparativereligions proves beyond doubt that Christianity has begged, borrowed, or stolen its philosophies andconcepts from the religions and philosophies of the ancient and medieval pagan worlds. Among thereligious symbols and allegories which belonged to the world long ago before the coming ofChristianity are a few to which we would like to call your attention. The following Christian symbolsand concepts are of pagan origin:The Christian cross comes from Egypt and India; the triple miter from the faith of the Mithraics; theshepherd's crook from the Hermetic Mysteries and Greece; the immaculate conception from India; thetransfiguration from Persia; and the trinity from the Brahmans. The Virgin Mary, as the mother of God,is found in a dozen different faiths. There are over twenty crucified world saviors. The church steepleis an adaptation of Egyptian obelisks and pyramids, while the Christian devil is the Egyptian Typhonwith certain modifications. The deeper one goes into the problem, the more he realizes that there isnothing new under the sun. A truly sincere study of the Christian faith proves beyond all doubt that itis the evolutionary outgrowth of primitive doctrines. There is an evolution in religion as well as inphysical form. If we accept and incorporate into our doctrines the religious symbolism of nearly fortypeoples it behooves us to understand (at least in part) the meaning of the myths and allegories whichwe borrow, lest we be more ignorant than those from whom we secured them.This brochure is devoted to the problem of explaining the relationship existing between the symbolismof the ancient priests and the occult functions of the human body. We must first understand that allsacred writings are supposed to be sealed with seven seals. In other words, it requires sevencomplete interpretations to understand fully the meaning of these ancient philosophic revelationswhich we have liked to call Holy Writ. Scripture is not intended to be historical. Those who understandits literal meaning understand (he least of its meaning.It is a well-known fact that Shakespeare, for dramatic reasons, brought together, in his plays,characters who had actually lived hundreds of years apart; but Shakespeare was not writing history he was penning drama. The same is true of the Bible. Scripture leaves historians hopelessly involvedin self-contradictory chronological tables, where the majority of historians will remain until thejudgment day. Scripture furnishes excellent subject matter for debates, and also ground forhairsplitting over the meaning of terms and probable locations of unknown cities. Many of the Biblicallandmarks now pointed out by guides were named hundreds of years after the birth of Christ bypilgrims who suspected them of occupying sites somewhere near those mentioned in the Bible. Allthis may prove convincing to some, but to the thinker it is conclusive evidence that history is the leastimportant part of Scripture.When the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, visited Jerusalem in 326 A. D., shediscovered that not only all traces of Christianity had already been lost, but that a temple dedicated tothe goddess Venus stood on the hill now accepted as Mount Calvary. Less than four hundred yearsafter the death of Christ there was apparently no one in the Holy Land who had ever heard of him!This does not necessarily imply that he never lived, but it certainly does indicate that the halo ofmiracles and supernatural atmosphere with which modern Christianity envelops him are largelymythological, lake all other religions, the Christian faith accumulated a weird collection of fantasticlegends which are its own worst enemies, for they have taken the simple moralist of Nazareth theman who loved his fellow creatures - and built around him a superstructure of idolatry which loves noone and serves only itself.
As Buddha in India merely reformed the Brahman concepts of his day, so Jesus reshaped the faith ofIsrael and gave to his disciples and the world a doctrine based upon that which had gone before butremodeled to meet the needs of the people who surrounded him and the problems which confrontedthe Jewish nation. The Essenes who educated Jesus were of Egyptian or Hindu origin, and his faithincorporated the best of that which had gone before. The records preserved of him are largelyallegorical, and the simple man is plunged by them into a great sea of supernaturalism. This was notentirely without purpose, however, for as Shakespeare took license with history in order to presentessential truths, so it seems the historians of Jesus used the character of the man as the groundworkof a great drama. He becomes the hero of a seven-sealed story, and those Christians who havestudied symbolism can gain from that story the key to the true Christian Mysteries. They will thenrealize that Scripture is perpetual history; that it pertains to no nation or people but is the story of allnations and peoples.It is a wonderful thing, for example, to study the life of Christ in the light of astronomy, for he becomesthe sun, and his disciples the twelve signs of the zodiac. Among the constellations we find the scenesof his ministry, and in the procession of the equinoxes the story of his birth, growth, maturity, anddeath for men. Again, the tortured chemicals in the retort further reveal to us the life of the Master, forwith the key to chemistry the Scriptures become another book. In this particular work, however, wecan only concern ourselves with the relationship of these allegories to the human body.We discover that the life of Christ, as found in the Gospels, has been conventionalized until it agreesperfectly with the lives of dozens of world saviors, for all of them are also astronomical andphysiological myths. All of these myths come to us out of the most remote antiquity, where theprimitive races used the human body as the symbolic unit, and the gods and demons werepersonified out of the organs and functions of the body. Among certain Cabalistic writers the HolyLand is mapped out on the human body, and the various cities are shown as centers ofconsciousness in man. There is a wonderful study here for those who will investigate deeply andsincerely the ancient Mysteries. We cannot hope to cover all the ground, but if you can gain from thisbooklet a key to the situation we hope you will pursue the line of thought until you have made it allinclusive and opened at least one seal of the Book of Divine Revelation.
THE OCCULT ANATOMY OF MANPART IITHE THREE WORLDSAccording to the Mystery Schools the human body is divided into three major parts, and in analogywith this the universe without is said to be composed of three worlds: heaven, earth, and hell. Heavenis the superior world and for some unknown reason is supposed to be above, although Ingersollproved conclusively that owing to the rotation of the earth, up and down are always changing places.Nearly all religions teach that God dwells in the heavens. Their members are taught to believe thatGod is above them, so they raise their hands in prayer and lift their eyes to the heavens when theyimplore or petition him. Among some nations he is supposed to dwell on the tops of mountains, whichare the highest places of the world. Wherever he is and whatever he is, his place of domicile isabove, overshadowing the world below.Between heaven above and hell beneath is the earth which the Scandinavians call Midgard, or themiddle garden. It is suspended in space and forms the dwelling place of men and other livingcreatures. It is connected to the heavens by a rainbow bridge down which the gods descend. Itsvolcanic craters and fissures are said to connect it with hell, the land of darkness and oblivion. Here,"twixt heaven and earth dominion wielding," as Goethe said, exists nature. The green grass, theflowing rivers, the mighty ocean, exist only in the middle world, which is a sort of neutral groundwhere the hosts of good and evil fight their eternal battle of Armageddon.Below, in darkness and flames, torment and suffering, is the world of Hel, which we have interpretedas hell. It is the great beneath: for as surely as we think of heaven as up, we think of hell as down,while this middle place (earth) seems to be (he dividing line between them. In hell are the forces ofevil, the tearing, rending, destroying powers which are always bringing sorrow to the earth and whichstruggle untiringly to overthrow the throne of the gods in heaven.The entire system is an anatomical myth, for the heaven-world of the ancients - the domed temple onthe top of the mountain - was the skull with its divine contents. This is the home of the gods in man. Itis termed up because it occupies the northern end of the human spine. The temple of the gods whorule the earth is said to be at the North Pole, which also, by the way, is the home of Santa Claus,because the North Pole represents the positive end of the spinal column of the planetary lord. SantaClaus, coming down the chimney with his sprig of evergreen (the Christmas tree) at the season of theyear when nature is dead, has a fine Masonic interpretation for those who wish to study it.The same is true of the manna that descended to feed the Children of Israel in the wilderness, for thismanna is a substance which comes down the spinal cord from the brain. The Hindus symbolized thespine as the stem of the sacred lotus; therefore the skull and contents are symbolized by the flower.The spinal column is Jacob's ladder connecting heaven and earth, while its thirty-three segments arethe degrees of Masonry and the number of years of the life of Christ. Up these segments thecandidate ascends in consciousness to reach the temple of initiation located on the top of themountain. It is in this domed room with a hole in the floor (foramen magnum) that the great mysteryinitiations are given. The Himalaya mountains rise above the earth, representing the shoulders andupper half of the body. They are the highest mountains of the world. Somewhere upon their summitstands the temple, resting (like the heavens of the Greeks) upon the shoulders of Atlas. It isinteresting to note that the atlas is the upper vertebra of the human spine upon which the condyles ofthe skull rest. In the brain there are a number of caves (ventricles and folds), and in them (accordingto Eastern legends) live the wise men - the yogis and hermits. The caves of the yogis are said to be
located at the head of the Ganges river. Every religion has its sacred river. To the Christians it is theJordan: to the Egyptians it is the Nile; while to the Hindus it is the Ganges. The sacred river is thespinal canal, which has its source among the peaks of the mountains. The holy men in their retreatsrepresent the spiritual sight in the human brain and are the seven sleepers of the Koran who mustremain in the darkness of their caves until the spirit (ire vitalizes them.The brain is the upper room referred to in the Gospels where Jesus met with his disciples, and it issaid that the disciples themselves represent the twelve convolutions of the brain. It is these twelveconvolutions which later send their messages by means of the nerves into the body below to convertthe gentiles, or preach the Gospel in the middle earth. These twelve convolutions gather around thecentral opening in the brain (the third ventricle), which is the Holy of Holies - the Mercy Seat - wherebetween the spreading wings of the angels Jehovah talks with the high priest, and where both dayand night the Shekinah's glory hovers. From this point also the spirit finally ascends from Golgotha,the place in the skull. It is a clairvoyant fact that the spirit not only leaves but also enters the bodythrough the crown of the head, probably giving rise to the story of Santa Claus and his chimney.The Trinity in man lives in the three great chambers of the human body, from which they radiate theirpower throughout the three worlds. These centers are the brain, the heart, and the reproductivesystem. These are the three main chambers of the pyramid and also the rooms in which arc given theEntered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason's degrees of Blue Lodge Masonry. In these threechambers dwell the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are symbolized by the three-letteredword, AUM. The transmutation, regeneration, and unfoldment of these three great centers result inthe sounding of the Lost Word, which is the great secret of the Masonic Order. From the spinal nervescome impulses and life forces which make this possible. Therefore the Mason is told to considercarefully his substitute word, which means "the marrow of the bone".In the cerebellum, or posterior brain - which has charge of the motive system of the human body andis the only brain developed in the animal - is to be found a little tree like growth which has long beensymbolized by a sprig of acacia and as such is referred to in the Masonic allegory.The two lobes of the cerebrum were called by the ancients Cain and Abel, and have much to do withthe legend of the curse of Cain, which is literally the curse of unbalance. For the murder of the spirit ofequilibrium Cain is sent forth a wanderer upon the face of the earth. I have in my possession a veryremarkable skull which originally rested on the shoulders of a homicide. It is of high organic quality,but bears the curse of Cain. This individual had a grudge which he nursed very carefully. Nursedgrudges sometimes become very dangerous things. This person swore that when he met a certainman he would cut his heart out and throw it in his face. A number of years passed, his hatred grew,and at last meeting his enemy he attacked him and fulfilled his threat. He was hanged for the crime,but the skull bearing the testimony to the brain reveals a very interesting fact. The right half of thebrain is under the control of Mercury - the planet of intelligence - and as a result of the crossing of thebrain nerves at the base of the skull it rules the left side of the body. The left half of the brain, underthe control of Mars - the spirit of anger and impulse - rules the right side of the body and likewise thestrong right arm. As the result of his hatred and the rulership of Mars which grew out of that hatred,the left rear side of the brain is fully twice the size of the right side. The individual allowed Mars tocontrol his nature. The impetuosity of Mars ruled him, and he paid with his life for the mark of Cain.Science knows there is a very narrow line between genius and insanity; for any dominating vice orvirtue man must pay with unbalance. Unbalance always distorts the viewpoint, and distortedviewpoints are unfailingly productive of misery.In the skull is the switchboard which controls the activities of the body. Every function of man belowthe neck is controlled by a center of consciousness in the brain. Proof of this is the fact that injury tocertain centers of the brain results in paralysis of various parts of the body. Medical science now
knows that the spinal cord is an elongation of the brain, and some authorities even claim the cord tobe capable of intelligence throughout its entire length. This cord is the flaming sword which issupposed to have stood at the gates of the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden is in the skull, withinwhich is a tree bearing twelve manner of fruit.The brain is filled with vaulted chambers and passageways which have their correspondence in thespans and arches of the temples, while the third ventricle is undoubtedly the King's Chamber of theGreat Pyramid. The spinal cord is the serpent of the ancients. In Central and South America theSavior God is called Quetzalcoatl. His name means a feathered serpent, and this has always beenhis symbol. This is the brazen serpent raised by Moses in the wilderness. The nine rattles on the tailof the serpent are called the number of man, and they represent the sacral and coccygeal boneswithin whose centers the secret of human evolution is contained.Every organ of the physical body is reproduced in the brain, where it can be traced by the law ofanalogy. There are two embryonic human forms, one male and the other female, twisted together inthe brain. These are the Yin and the Yang of China, the black and white dragons biting each other.One of these figures has as its organ of expression the pineal gland, and the other the pituitary body.These two ductless glands are well worth consideration, for they are very important factors in theunfolding of human consciousness. It is known that these glands are larger and more active in highergrades of mentality than in those of lower quality, and in certain congenital idiots they are very small.These two little glands are called the head and the tail of the dragon of wisdom. They are the copperand zinc poles of an electric circuit which has the entire body as a battery.The pituitary body (which rests in the sella turcica of the sphenoid bone directly behind and just a littlebelow the bridge of the nose and connected to the third ventricle by a tiny tube called infundibulum) isthe feminine pole, or negative center, which has charge of the expressions of physical energy. Itsactivity also regulates to a large degree the size and weight of the body. It is also a thermometerrevealing disorder in any other of the chain of ductless glands. Endocrinology (the study of theductless glands and their secretions) is still in its experimental stage, but some day it will be revealedas the most important of all medical sciences. The pituitary body is known under the followingsymbols by the ancient world: The alchemical retort, the mouth of the dragon, the Virgin Mary, theHoly Grail, the lunar crescent, the laver of purification, one of the cherubim of the Arch, the Isis ofEgypt, the Radha of India, and the fish's mouth. It may well be called the hope of glory of the physicalman. At the opposite end of the third ventricle and a little higher is the pineal gland, which looks notunlike a pine cone (from which it secured its name).Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge, keeper of the Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum, mentions inone of his works the Egyptian custom of tying pine cones on the tops of their heads. He states that inthe papyrus rolls these cones are fastened to the tops of the heads of the dead when taken into thepresence of Osiris, Lord of the Underworld. Undoubtedly this symbol referred to the pineal gland. Itwas also the custom of certain African tribes to fasten pieces of fat to the tops of their heads, andallow them to melt in the sun and run down over them, as part of their religious observances. It isinteresting that the American Indian should wear his feather - which was originally symbolical ofspiritual perception - in the same place where the Christian monk shaves his head. The Hindus teachthat the pineal gland is the third eye, called the Eye of Dangma. It is called by the Buddhists the allseeing eye, and is spoken of in Christianity as the eye single.We are told that ages ago the pineal gland was an organ of sense orientation by which man cognizedthe spiritual world, but that with the coming of the material senses and the two objective eyes itceased to be used, and during the time of the Lemurian race retreated to its present position in thebrain. It is said that children, recapitulating their previous periods of evolution, have a limited use ofthe third eye up to their seventh year, at which time the skull bones grow together. This accounts for
the semi-clairvoyant condition of children, who are far more sensitive than adults along psychic lines.The pineal gland is supposed to secrete an oil, which is called resin, the life of the pine tree. Thisword is said to be involved in the origin of the Rosicrucians, who were working with the secretions ofthe pineal gland and seeking to open the eye single; for it is said in Scripture: "The light of the body isthe eye: if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be filled with light."The pineal gland is the tail of the dragon and has a tiny finger-like protuberance at one end. Thisgland is called Joseph for it is the father of the God- man. The finger-like protuberance is called thestaff of God, sometimes the holy spear. Its shape is like the evaporating vessel of the alchemists. It isa spiritual organ which is later destined to be what it once was, namely, a connecting link between thehuman and the divine. The vibrating finger on the end of this gland is the rod of Jesse and the scepterof the high priest. Certain exercises as given in the Eastern and the Western Mystery Schools causethis little finger to vibrate, resulting in a buzzing, droning sound in the brain. This is sometimes verydistressing, especially when the individual who experiences the phenomenon, in all too many cases,knows nothing about the experience through which he is passing.In the middle of the brain and surrounded by the convolutions is the third ventricle, a vaulted chamberof initiation. Around it sit three kings, three great centers of life and power - the pituitary body, thepineal gland, and the optic thalamus. In this chamber also is a small gritty seed which is undoubtedlyconnected with the king's coffer in the Great Pyramid. The third ventricle is supposed to be the seat ofthe soul, and the aura radiating from the heads of saints and sages is said to represent the goldenglow pouring from this third ventricle.Between the eyes and just above the root of the nose is a spreading in the frontal bone of the skullwhich is called the frontal sinus. The slight bulge caused by the spreading of this bone is known tophrenology as the seat of individuality. It is here that the jewels are placed on the foreheads of theBuddhas, and it is also from this point that the serpent rose from the crown of the ancient Egyptians.Several of the Mystery Schools teach that this is the seat of Jehovah in the human body. While hisfunction is through the generative system, his center of consciousness as a part of the spirit of man issupposed to be located in a sea of blue ether called the veil of Isis, in the center of the frontal sinus.When clairvoyantly studying the body of man that little point always shows up as a black dot andcannot be analyzed.The Palatine hill of the ancients, upon which were built the temples of Jupiter and Juno, also has itsplace in the human body. The palate bone is a sort of hill-shaped structure, and right above it are theorbital cavities containing the two eyes, which are the Jupiter and Juno of the ancient world.The cross, of course, represents the human body. The upper limb of it is the head of man rising abovethe horizontal line of his outstretched arms. As already stated, the great churches and cathedrals ofthe world have been built in the form of a cross, and contain (where the head should be) the altarupon which are burning lighted candles. These candles are symbolic of spiritual sense centers in thebrain, while the custom of placing a rose window over the altar suggests the soft place in the top ofthe skull. The skull - the upper room - is the sanctum sanctorum of the Masonic Temple, and to it onlythe pure can aspire.The winged bone, which medical science knows as the sphenoid, is the Egyptian scarab carrying inits claws the pituitary body and also bearing aloft the gleaming spark of immortality located in thefrontal sinus.We are told in ancient mythologies that the gods came down from heaven and walked with men,instructing them in the arts and sciences. In a similar way the godlike powers in man descend fromthe heaven world of his brain to carry on the work of constructing and reconstructing natural
substances. We are told that in the ultimate of evolution man's body will slowly be dissolved backagain into the brain (which was its origin) until nothing remains but seven globular centers radiatingseven perfect sense perceptions, which are the spirits before the throne and the saviors which he isbringing into the world to redeem it through the seven periods of his growth.Man is an inverted plant, gaining his nourishment from the sun as the plant does from the earth. Asthe life of the plant ascends its stem to nourish its leaves and branches, so the life of man (rooted inthe brain) descends to produce the same result. This life descending is symbolized as the worldsaviors who come down into the world to die for men. Later these lives are returned again to thebrain, where they glorify man
THE OCCULT ANATOMY OF MAN CONTENTS PART I THE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISM PART II THE THREE WORLDS PART III THE SPINAL COLUMN PART IV THE INFERNAL WORLDS PART V OCCULT EMBRYOLOGY PART VI OCCULT MASONRY. THE OCCULT ANATOMY OF MAN PART I THE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISM In Scripture we are told that God made man in his own image. It is so stated not only .
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